Religious orientation and homophobia: an application of the Allport and Batson conceptualizations

This study elucidates the relationship between the intrinsic, extrinsic, and quest religious orientations and prejudice toward gay men and lesbians. Measures of the religious orientations, homophobia, social desirability, and demographic items were administered to 228 university student volunteers. As predicted, the intrinsic orientation correlated positively and significantly with homophobia even with social desirability controlled, and the quest orientation correlated negatively and significantly with homophobia, also with social desirability controlled. Contrary to prediction, however, the extrinsic orientation di d not correlate significantly with homophobia. These findings support previous research suggesting that an intrinsic orientation does not obviate prejudicial attitudes toward all groups and that a quest orientation predicts a non-prejudiced attitude